Gili Motang = Tiny Komodo Dragon Island

The Komodo dragon, Varanus komodoensis, is the world’s largest lizard, sometimes growing up to 10 feet long (3 meters) and exceeding 150 pounds (70 kilograms). Powerful as this creature seems, it has met its match in man’s depredation. Ciofi’s research stands to boost the species’ population in the wild and in the world’s zoos.

Komodo dragons are the largest member of the monitor lizard family. They grow over 50 years to 100 kg and almost 3m from head to tail tip. They use burrows to maintain their body temperature during the night, and bask in the sunlight to raise their temperature at dawn. They live off wild dear, pigs, buffalo and even horses, lying in wait and employing camouflage and ambush tactics.

There are now only approximately 1,100 dragons left in the park on Komodo Island, Rinca and Gili Motang, and outside the park area in eastern Flores.

In the 1990s they numbered only 3,300 so if you want to see the dragons before they fall the way of the dinosaurs, now is a good time to come.

Gili Motang is a small island in Eastern Indonesia. It is part of the Lesser Sunda Islands chain, which together with the Greater Sunda Islands to the west make up the Sunda Islands.

The island, volcanic in origin, is approximately 30 km² (12 mi²) in area.
Home to a small population of about 100 Komodo dragons, Gili Motang is part of Komodo National Park. In 1991 as part of the national park, Gili Motang was accepted as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

A small island of the Flores island chain in central Indonesia. Gili Motang is part of the Komodo National Park, and the smallest of the few remaining habitats of the Komodo dragon.

Gili Motang is one of the few islands that hosts the wild Komodo dragons. There are only around 100 Komodo dragons on this island though.